Baba Ramdev, one of the fiercest proponents of the Swadeshi campaign in India, has joined hands with packaging solutions company, Tetra Pak, to develop an array of new range of ready-to-drink health beverages in aseptic packages of different sizes and shape.

In the United States, the yoga guru has also acquired an Ayurvedic medicine company in the name of Herbo Ved, for an undisclosed sum to sell the new products abroad.

Back in his mega Patanjali Food and Herbal Park in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, established with an investment of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) across a sprawling 125 acres of land, Baba Ramdev has set up two manufacturing machines of Tetra Pak.

These units have a capacity to produce 32,000 packets in one hour. All the new products will be free of any preservative and can be stored for up to six months.

Significantly, Patanjali Food and Herbal Park is religiously following the Food and Drug Administration norms of the US, considered to the highest in the world, he added.

New Delhi: K N Govindacharya, once among the chief strategists of Bharatiya Janata Party, is all set to launch a new political party which may include not only the leaders from his erstwhile organisation but also Baba Ramdev.

According to reports, encouraged by the success of ‘Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan’ and ‘Bharat Vikas Sangam’, Govindacharya has embarked upon his new political plan, and for that purpose he has started connecting people under the banner of ‘Rashtravadi Morcha’. He is likely to make an announcement in June.

Former BJP MP Banwarilal Purohit, Jayaprakash Narayan of Lok Satta Party and other leaders of small regional parties participated in the Morcha, which held a meeting on Thursday.

The leaders discussed overall change in the nation’s existing administrative system and deliberated over political alternative also.Leaders in the meeting asked Govindacharya to play the role of ‘Chanakya’ to uproot the present corrupt system.

JANAKI KNOWS well that it is hard for her to rear more than four children. Yet she is not willing to go to the sterilisation camp. Her husband would be of no help in taking such a decision. “He drinks heavily, beats me up every day,” she says. Janaki is not able to express her fears in clear terms, but it is difficult to imagine her summoning up the courage or the strength to go to the camp voluntarily.

Janaki belongs to one of the most primitive tribes in Wayanad, a district in Kerala’s largest tribal belt. Tribals constitute 17 percent of the total population of the district, and are vulnerable to various health problems that scale up infant mortality, maternal mortality and communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted ones.

Adivasis in Wayanad are brought to sterilisation camps in large numbers by health workers. “We have sterilisation camps every week at block level,” says Dr Kunjikkannan, who is in charge of conducting camps in the district. “It is a fact that the majority brought to the camps are tribals.” Apart from the weekly camps, there are district-level camps every year if possible. The last camp was on 26 November 2010 in which 42 men underwent nonscalpel vasectomy (NSV) — 32 were from tribal communities. Government officials deny coercion or compulsion, but the boundary between the two is narrow.

“Official figures indicate that the number of tribals in Kerala is diminishing,” says CK Janu of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a prominent tribal movement. “Yet the sterilisation programme is in full swing. It has to be viewed in connection with the issue of land alienation and the ongoing land struggles by Adivasis. The government does not want to give the alienated land back to tribals.” However, it would be difficult to establish ‘ethnic cleansing’ as the intent of the government, as she alleges.

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DR GEETHA Vijayan, Wayanad’s District Medical Officer (DMO) says, “It is true that the tribal communities in Wayanad are highly vulnerable. We do understand their problems. “We have a target-free approach, we don’t force anybody,” she adds. “The junior public health nurses and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) go to the field and bring them to sterilisation camps, but we have given strict instruction not to force anybody.”

“Coercion need not be very direct,” counters Dr Kumar. He may be right, for the performance of ASHAworkers, who do not get salary, is assessed in the monthly review meeting conducted at district level. They work on commission basis. “One ASHA worker gets Rs. 50-100 when she/he brings a person for sterilisation. Obviously, they make the effort to bring as many people as possible,” says Dr Kumar.

Making amends Lakshmikutty regrets using various tactics

Meenakshi, belonging to the Kattunaikkar colony in Batheri, has decided to undergo sterilisation, though her knowledge of the procedure, its side effects and its consequences is sketchy. “She (the promoter of the family welfare programme in her colony) comes frequently, she is asking me to do this operation.” That’s all Meenakshi knows. It is difficult to persuade such women to go in for intra-uterine devices, which work for five years, as they would have to maintain certain hygiene standards and then come back after five years for a fresh insertion.

Lakshmikutty, 65, a retired Anganwadi teacher who worked in family welfare over a couple of decades but is now an open critic, says, “We used all kinds of tactics, from appeasement to intimidation, to meet the target.” Health workers even mislead Adivasis by warning that they might not get the benefits and welfare schemes for tribals if they have more than two children.

A practising gynaecologist in a government hospital discloses that Adivasi women are sent back home as soon as possible after delivery to avoid the death of either the mother or the child in the hospital. The possibility is high because the women are severely anaemic.

Copelessness Janaki is gripped by a fear of the unknown

Official records seem to corroborate this: post-partum sterilisation, the surgery conducted soon after delivery, is avoided on tribal woman. In 2008, this procedure was performed on 2,535 women, but only 322 were tribals. Instead, Adivasi women are usually brought to sterilisation camps after three or four months.

Field workers in the villages of Wayanad more or less share this view. They think that it is impractical to think of teaching the use of condoms in these areas due to social inhibitions among the populace.

Health activists, however, refute the claim that there are any such constraints. “The authorities are highly pre-occupied,” says Dr Prakash, an activist of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, working at a rural hospital in Wayanad. “If they can mobilise people for permanent sterilisation, why can’t they do it for temporary birth control measures that are relatively less harmful?” The question that Dr Prakash raises remains unanswered.

Permanent methods are keenly promoted by health workers but not temporary birth control measures

The targeted tribals face other complications for which there is no accountability. Ponni’s fourth pregnancy was an accident, the result of failure of her husband Maniyan’s vasectomy. He had undergone the procedure after the birth of their third child. Six years after the surgery, Ponni gave birth to a baby girl. Suspecting Ponni’s fidelity, Maniyan left home, leaving his wife and children in abject poverty.

Kerala is the top-ranked state in terms of meeting the objectives of the national family welfare programme that dates back to 1951. But it smacks of discrimination if the state manages to achieve this status by sterilising the most vulnerable and marginalised people regardless of their other health problems.

Maintaining that there was no constitutional right to convert a person from one religion to another, justice P Sathasivan of the Supreme Court on Saturday said the right to propagate one’s religion was not an"

St. Mary School's recognition to be withdrawn for looting parents: "Mr. Sunil Chauhan, the Deputy Director of Education Board has issued a show cause notice to Saint Mary’s High School at Mazgaon, for extorting money from the students and parents in the form of fine and donations in millions of rupees, as to why the recognition granted to the School should not be withdrawn."

On the link - http://www.twitter.com/#!/RGVzoomin , Ram Gopal Verma considering himself to be a scholar of Hindu Dharma, has expressed the above opinion which is against ‘Dharma-shastra’. The same information has been uploaded even on his account on face book viz. http://www.facebook.com/rgvzoomin enraging devout Hindus. Many Hindus have sent him protest – letters and registered their protest using ‘report abuse’ method.

Anti-Hindu Verma says …………

1. If there were no arrows in the ‘Ramayana’ era, I wonder how Rama would have wrestled2. There are women like Rambha, Urvashi, Tilottama in the Heaven for men; but no such provision is there for women; therefore, the women’s organizations should protest to God for injustice done to women in Heaven3. The nectar available in Heaven must be actually some wine or liquor as it cannot be juice of any fruit.4. Loyal Seeta went with Rama to the forest; but would the wife of Lakshman go to Hell like forest with Lakshmana?5. I wonder that how Dasharath could attain ‘Heaven’ despite his listening to his stupid wife and sending Rama in exile ?6. Everyone knows that today is ‘Ram-navami’ i.e. the day Rama was born but which is the day of His death ?(One cannot be a Hindu if his blood does not boil after reading the above ! – Editor SP)

I was a born and brought-up as a catholic and knew absolutely nothing about India, Hinduism and Hindus. When I was a young Frenchman of 19, I had the privilege to hear about the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, through a friend, whose father was the last Governor of Pondichery. My friend told me that a caravan of 5 cars was about to drive from Paris to Pondichery. On a hunch, I joined this caravan.

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Thus slowly, I became acquainted with the eternal principles of Hinduism:

• A Hindu is one who searches for the Ultimate Truth.

• Unlike other religions, Hinduism refuses to sanction the monopoly of one God, or one Scripture as the only way to salvation.

• Hinduism is the eternal faith, Sanataana Dharma, or the universal law by which all humans are governed.

• Hindus believe that the soul takes birth in a physical body, dies, gets reborn, until it has attained Perfect Divinity.

• Hindus believe that one can cleanse oneself from karmas through yoga practices, such as pranayama, meditation or asanas.

• One can be a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, or from any other religion and still practice Hinduism.

Anna Hazare’s electronic media-backed fast-till-darkness has slowed down the fire burning in the hearts of millions of people who wanted a quick change in the system of corruption and criminalization in India. We are the largest democracy governed by a living constitution where Parliament is sovereign. How far can a fasting gentleman - even if the fast were genuine - dictate terms to a sovereign Parliament elected by the mandate of over one billion people?

We need a cultural revolution of mind and thought. Change in laws, however deterrent they may be, cannot change politicians and criminals. Someday we have to improve rather than change the electoral laws by demolishing the influence of money and muscle power in the electoral process. Pick-pocketers are not afraid of public hanging, let alone the Lok Ayukt.

On 20 March 1815, when Napoleon returned as victor to France, thousands of Frenchmen gathered at Republic Square in Paris to welcome him as a leader of the revolution. While the exit of Louis XVIII, last king of France was being celebrated with French wines and champagne by French revolutionaries, Napoleon commanded citizens in Republic Square to go back to work, and that was all. Several thousands among the audience screamed: oú est revolución (where is the revolution)? An angry Napoleon retorted, Le Revolución, a finité (The Revolution is finished). And so a dictatorship followed.

A massive and popular uprising of the people of Spain was witnessed by Europe in the first quarter of the 19th century. A noted military man, General Franco, jumped into the fray against the king. He called Spaniards residing in different European countries to join the revolution which made thousands of youth, Spanish labourers, intellectuals and all return to Spain to join the Spanish revolution against Carlos, king of Spain. The king fled and General Franco took over the nation in 1936. His four decade dictatorship suppressed the seedlings of revolution. Before his death in 1975, he issued a decree ensuring the return of Prince Carlos (son of the deposed king) to Spain as its King again.

China’s famed revolutionary, Mao Zedong, took over the reins of power in 1949 after Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland. Promises of freedom of expression and liberty of thought and equality were thrown to the winds. China has everything except human rights and freedom of thought and expression.

In 1969, a young Army Officer from an unknown tribe ousted the king of Libya and assured the Libyan people of equality and justice through his Green Book, and still rules… When people got education, they followed the spirit of his Green Book. Col. Gaddafi treated them with bullets. The people felt cheated; so much for Ultimate Revolution.

The people of India demonstrated their will for change and supported the Total Revolution led by veteran socialist leader Jaiprakash Narayan in the mid-1970s. The mighty Congress led by the unmatchable Indira Gandhi was ousted in 1977. Revolution appeared total. It did not survive a full term of Parliament even. The same Congress leadership which was rejected by the people as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘corrupt’ returned to power through the power of the ballot. But the victorious Indira Gandhi was assassinated in her official residence …

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This author shot a letter to Anna Hazare reminding him of the unfortunate end of the Total Revolution Shri Jaiprakash Narayan dreamt of so genuinely in the mid-1970s. His movement was against ‘authoritarian rule’ and for the return of democracy eclipsed by the Emergency. But Total Revolution disappeared with the disappearance of Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan.

Anna’s four day fast mobilized people from different walks of life, who hoped Hazare’s fast would usher in a corruption-less era, make the corrupt march off the political domain and leave democracy in the hands of its genuine custodians chosen by the electorates.

Shri Anna Hazare remained on fast at Jantar Mantar the whole day, but his companions moved him to some secure place for the night. Visitors wondered about his disappearance in the nights. Many started inquiring whether Gandhi ji used to stay away from his fasting venue in the night. Perhaps the champions of the Lokpal cause doubted Delhi Police’s ability to provide them protection.

The question arises whether enactment of a law by Parliament shall deter highly placed politicians and high-profile bureaucrats from indulging in routine corruption? There is death sentence for committing murder or conspiring against the state. Have these laws stopped murders or conspiracies? There are strong anti-corruption laws in the Penal Code. Have such laws stopped thefts or crimes? Above all, prosecutors play an important role in collecting evidence and projecting such evidence before the trial courts. The prosecutors shall remain unchanged, so also the judges.

From where justice shall flow unto the people? The great intellectuals, thinkers, the supermen in civil society and the media must answer this question. The government has every excuse now that it has fulfilled the aspirations of the people to fight corruption by formulating an Anti-Corruption Law and appointing a toothful Lok Ayukt in response to the people’s wishes.

Can laws bring desired results and deliver justice? Consider a story of the Victorian era. Queen Victoria enacted a law to respect the British desire that ‘death’ sentence should be awarded to ‘pick-pocketers’ in public. At Trafalgar Square, London, 20,000 people came to witness the public hanging of a pick-pocketer. On their return from the scene, 80% found their pockets were picked.

This author in his letter addressed to Anna Hazare, a day before he terminated his fast, expressed the anxiety of over one billion Indians against corruption, communalism and criminalization, particularly among politicians. The people expressed total solidarity with Anna Hazare, hoping he may lead the revolution for the establishment of a corruption-free society so that India leads the world in the promotion of disarmament, peace and development of the wretched of the earth. Shall a Lok Ayukt end corruption?

At Jantar Mantar, this author met many youth from different parts of the country who seemed highly disappointed and asked the same question - ‘Where is the revolution gone?’

Footnote: Has the Counter Revolution begun?

-EVEN before the first meeting of the joint committee on the Lokpal Bill begins on April 16, groups and organisations against Anna Hazare and the civil activists supporting him have begun to counter his crusade. One group from Maharashtra, said to have links with the NCP, reached the Capital on Monday and began doing the rounds of residences and offices of government nominees in the panel. Meeting one senior minister, they handed over documents, including what appeared to be affidavits, that purportedly allege that Anna Hazare had indulged in misappropriation of funds in some of the trusts he heads or is a member. These include the Hind Swaraj Trust which received money from the government for watershed development programmes. Anna Hazare has already refuted the allegations earlier, but in the light of the recent agitation and Hazare's criticism of key political leaders, one can expect more such twists and turns in the immediate future.

-In a veiled attack on non-government organisations that supported Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said the Lokpal Bill should cover “corporates and NGOs”. He added that social activists in the joint committee should declare their assets: “It will be in the highest tradition of transparency.”

-The Congress general secretary took a dig at Hazare for his controversial remarks that people vote for Rs 100 or a sari or a bottle of liquor and therefore, he will not contest an election. Are all voters dishonest?

-Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi said that scrapping an election result in case of the ‘none-of-the-above’ option polled most votes [demanded by Hazare] would be futile. The recall option, too, might not work.

The author is Chairman, J&K National Panthers Party, & Member, National Integration Council. His website is profbhimsingh.com

Four women activists also tried to enter with her. Mr. Mohan Munishwar, Mr. Vilas Joshi and Mr. Kedar Munishwar, the priests tried to make her see sense and dissuade her from entering the sanctum sanctorum; but she was in no mood to listen. Finally, the priests along with the policemen present there prevented her from entering the sanctum sanctorum. Insistence of Advocate Neeta Kelkar has enraged the priests and Hindus. (Hindus should not just express their reaction; but they should condemn such anti-Dharma act in lawful manner; else the source of divine energy present in such ‘jagrut’ temples will be destroyed ! – Editor SP) "